different between slacker vs spiv

English

Etymology

From slack +? -er; compare especially slack off.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /?slæk?/
• Rhymes: -æk?(r)

Noun

slacker (plural slackers)

1. One who procrastinates or is lazy.
2. A person lacking a sense of direction in life; an underachiever.
3. A person who seeks to avoid military service.
   • 1918 September 10, New York Times, "Take Slackers into Army",

     [S]everal hundred prisoners captured in North Jersey slacker raids last week and sent to this camp are being Inducted into military service today...

   • 1943 September 29, New York Times, "Wheeler assails Bureau 'Slackers'",

     Senator Burton K. Wheeler opened his fight in the Senate today..., raising the cry of "slackers" against deferred workers in Government establishments and industry.

4. (rare) A user of the Slackware Linux operating system.
   • 1996 August 15, stephen benson, "Re: How broken is Infomagic's Redhat linux?", comp.os.linux.setup, Usenet,

     I'm a slacker from way back btw

   • 2002 January 15, Josh, "Re: slackware installation issue", comp.os.linux, Usenet,

     Hope you become a happy slacker.

   • 2007 May 16, Dan C, "Re: Distro Poll, what do you use?", alt.os.linux, Usenet,

     Any real Slacker would know better than to top-post, AND post a bunch of HTML-crap to boot. You're not worthy.

5. A member of a certain 1990s subculture associated with Generation X.

Translations

Anagrams

• Clarkes, calkers, lackers, rackles, recalks

English

Etymology

Unknown

Perhaps from spiff, spiffy.

Spiv was the nickname of Henry Bagster, a Londoner arrested a number of times in 1904-6 for activities as described below, and may have been the archetype. Also possibly from Romani spiv, a sparrow as active and opportunistic.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sp?v/
• Rhymes: -?v

Noun

spiv (plural spivs)

1. (Britain) A smartly dressed person who trades in illicit, black-market or stolen goods.
2. (Britain, dated) A flashy con artist, often homeless, who lives by his wits.

   Synonyms: sharper, chiseler, wide boy; see also Thesaurus:fraudster, Thesaurus:confidence trickster

3. (Britain, dated) In Scotland Yard usage, a low and common thief.
4. (Britain, dated) A slacker; one who shirks responsibility.

Quotations

• "I make no apology for attacking spivs and gamblers who did more harm to the British economy than [transport union leader] Bob Crow could achieve in his wildest Trotskyite fantasies, while paying themselves outrageous bonuses underwritten by the taxpayer." -- Vince Cable on the banking system.

Derived terms

• spivery
• spivish
• spivvy

References

Further reading

• "spiv" at World Wide Words Michael Quinion, 2001

Anagrams

• PIVs, V.I.P.s, VIPs